Shawn Clusky has seen every side of Kentucky's battle with pain-pill addiction over the past 10 years.

Clusky first tried OxyContin at age 17 with his school buddies, shortly after the high-powered narcotic painkiller went on the market. He was an occasional user and seller until about age 21, when he became fully addicted.

When he was 25, he got arrested at a Lexington gas station for selling $15,000 worth of pills. Clusky received probation, but was still using until he was sent to the WestCare rehabilitation center in eastern Kentucky.

He now works there as a counselor.

"A lot of times people believe a drug addict comes from poverty," he said.

Not true.

"Nine out of 10 of the guys I partied with came from millionaire families. Their parents didn't use; they had good families."

Ten years ago, Kentucky learned it had a major drug problem.

OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller, was being abused at alarming rates in the Appalachian areas of eastern and southern Kentucky. A decade later, the level of pain-pill abuse throughout the state and across the country is at epic levels, officials say.

Despite some successes — including high-profile drug arrests across the country, increased treatment programs and the adoption of prescription-drug monitoring programs in 43 states — the problem is now so entrenched that the cheap flights and van rentals drug traffickers use to travel from Florida to Kentucky and other states to peddle "hillbilly heroin" are nicknamed the "OxyContin Express."

The sheer scope of the problem is a key reason.

Kentucky often ranks at or near the top in U.S. measures of the level of prescription pain-pill abuse.



According to a study by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), there was a fourfold increase nationally in treatment admissions for prescription pain-pill abuse during the past decade. The increase spans every age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, employment level and region.

The study also shows a tripling of pain-pill abuse among patients who needed treatment for dependence on opioids — prescription narcotics.

The rate of overdose-related deaths among men in Kentucky more than doubled from 2000 to 2009, and it tripled among women, according to the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Nearly every family in eastern Kentucky has been touched by prescription-drug addiction and death.

In the late 1990s, it was easier to find OxyContin — pure oxycodone with a time release — in Kentucky. The manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, was selling it "hand over fist" to doctors in eastern Kentucky, rich with coal-mine injuries and folks with government health-care cards, Clusky said.

Clusky said a high-school friend who worked at a pharmacy would steal the pills for his friends, so "it didn't cost any of us anything."

When many of the eastern Kentucky pill sources dried up after law-enforcement raids in 2001, Clusky said, the trade moved to Mexico, where oxycodone could be bought for pennies over the counter and sold for as much as $100 a pill in the rural U.S.

Clusky began making trips to Nuevo Laredo, driving back home with thousands of pills. By this time, heroin was his drug of choice. He often traveled to larger cities, where heroin could be found more cheaply.

"Five hundred dollars worth of heroin would last me a week. Five hundred dollars worth of oxy would last me one day," Clusky said.

Clusky lived part time in Ohio, sometimes making three doctor-shopping trips a day from Lexington to Dayton. He did a few stints in rehab, at one point trying methadone and Suboxone to treat his opiate addiction. It didn't work.

"I was as useless to society on methadone as I was on heroin," he said.

By 2002, a quarter of the overdose deaths in the nation linked to OxyContin were in eastern Kentucky, authorities said.

Police, regulators and elected officials charged that Purdue Pharma, the Connecticut-based maker of OxyContin, marketed the drug too aggressively, feeding an oversupply and diversion onto the illicit market.

Purdue Pharma denied that, but the company and three top officials ultimately pleaded guilty in 2007 to misleading the public about the risk of addiction and paid $634.5 million in fines.

Authorities had begun pushing back long before that against growing abuse of OxyContin and other prescription drugs, but addicts and traffickers kept finding ways to get pills.

"Law enforcement adjusts, and the criminals adjust," said Frank Rapier, the head of the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, which includes 68 counties in Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia.

Hal Rogers' voice grows tight with frustration whenever the U.S. House member from Kentucky talks about the prescription-drug epidemic that's gripped Appalachia for more than a decade.

"Crook doctors operating these pill mills" in Florida are running rampant and are fueling the flow of illegally obtained prescription drugs to states such as Kentucky, Rogers, a Republican and the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told Attorney General Eric Holder during a recent hearing. "My people are dying."

The heroin-addict bank robber who became one of the most-wanted men in New York for a spree that began around Christmas had grenades inside his Queens home, sources revealed yesterday.

Marat Mikhaylich, 35 - dubbed the "Holiday Bandit" - was captured Tuesday after the NYPD's high-tech license-plate readers, along with some old-fashioned detective work by the FBI, led cops to his stolen getaway car, the sources said.

After his arrest, police and FBI agents conducted a search of Mikhaylich's Queens apartment and found several grenades, sources told The Post.

Mikhaylich is suspected in seven heists in Brooklyn and Staten Island, as well as two in New Jersey.

Talking to Young, the host of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs, Sheen admitted that his family finds dealing with his 45-year-old son's problem "a rollercoaster", but said that the troubled star required help and sympathy: "Charlie is dealing with the most profound problems and addiction, it is no secret," said Sheen, 70. "His behaviour has been an example of that."

After discussing his own battle with alcohol as a young man, Sheen, best known for his long stint in the Oval Office on the television series The West Wing, compared his son's addiction with other potentially terminal illnesses. "So, if he had cancer, how would we deal with him? Well, he has another disease and it is equally as dangerous as cancer. And so we lift him up and we pray for him and be present to him. And we try to meet with him as much as we can. But he is an adult and he needs a lot of help on a lot of different levels."

Although his son's problems have made recent headlines following outlandish statements about his home life with two lovers and his sacking from the sitcom Two and a Half Men, Sheen said:"He has been out there on his own for a very long time and as a family you never get used to it. It is a rollercoaster ride and it's been going on for some time. So we deal with it every day."

The star also told Young about the impact of the heart attack that struck him in March 1977 "out of the blue" while filming Apocalypse Now, and prompted a big change in his own habits and attitudes.

Sheen stopped drinking and became a pacifist, he says, as a result of the experience and after reading Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, selected as his desert island book. His subsequent journey back to the Catholic faith, he said, was guided by the memory of his mother who had died suddenly when he was 11. "I have always felt her presence. Sometimes I even see her in other people. It is fleeting, mind you."

The actor's political activism, which has seen him arrested 67 times, has caused him problems in Hollywood, he admits, but he has no regrets. "I cannot not do it and be myself," he said.

Sheen also pays warm tributes to his wife of nearly 50 years, Janet, and his other famous son, Emilio Estevez, who directs him in a new film, The Way. "When he was born I thought, 'Here is the guy I have been waiting for all my life.' He is a companion, a big brother almost. And that is the way it has always been."

With his 50th wedding anniversary due to be marked in December this year, the actor declines to explain the secret of a good marriage, but tells Young that his wife is "the most remarkable human being I have ever known", adding that "honestly, I still don't have a clue who she is".

Sheen chooses two songs by his friend and neighbour Bob Dylan: Knocking on Heaven's Door and Subterranean Homesick Blues.

76,000,000 people in the United States are afflicted with alcoholism. While a lot of people go through the twelve steps of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) successfully (and the successes vary) many people never find a program that works for them and eventually drink themselves into a bottomless abyss.

Alcoholism can affect anyone. There is no age, income, race, religion or educational background that depicts alcoholism.


Alcoholism is a disease. While there are no visible sores on the body or medicine that can cure alcoholism, there is the program of AA. When the program of AA is done effectively, magical doors open and life becomes manageable for the first time.


What is alcohol abuse? Find out if you're drinking above the recommended amount today drinkaware.co.uk
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In the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, known as The Big Book, Bill Wilson wrote "How It Works" found on page 63. He writes, "half measures availed us nothing, we stood at the turning point." This means, alcoholics stood at a fork in the road. Life or death. When alcoholics drink, they drink with all they have. Nothing and no one matters. That is one side of the road.

The other side of the road is practicing the Twelve Steps of AA thoroughly. In order to be successful at sobriety, there can be no "half measures". No one is "kind of an alcoholic" and certainly everyone who drinks alcohol is not an alcoholic. If you drink and your life is unmanageable, perhaps you should find an AA meeting and stay to find out if you are indeed an alcoholic.

Family and Friends Stepping In
On the show "Intervention", there are profiled cases of alcoholics and drug addicts. The addict/alcoholic is intervened upon and is talked into going to a beautiful rehab in a beautiful setting begrudgingly. I've yet to read one footnote at the end of the show that said the profiled person continued a life of sobriety.

It is painful to watch our loved ones fall into the darkness of alcoholism and addiction. Many of us feel guilt and we help the alcoholic/addict out. We may give them rides or cash. This is called 'enabling' and it does more harm than good. Enablers are often co-dependent and have weak boundaries. The enabler "helps" the alcoholic/addict by giving money or calling them out of work. This leaves no culpability for the alcoholic/addict. Without responsibility for one's actions, there is no room for growth.

To learn how help an alcoholic/addict go to www.aa.org and click on "for the family." There is also Al-Anon for families and loved ones of alcoholics and addicts. Al-Anon provides support for family members dealing with a loved one's addiction.

CANNABIS-GROWING facility found by gardaí in Co Meath was being readied to produce a crop valued at €1.4 million every eight weeks and is both the largest and most sophisticated operation of its kind ever found in the State.

Senior Garda sources said the premises were in the process of being doubled in size and when fully constructed would have been capable of producing a cannabis crop every eight weeks with a street value of €1.4 million.

“This was an industrial-sized operation in the true sense,” said one Garda source.

The discovery was made at Bective near Trim in Co Meath on Wednesday afternoon.

Some 1,720 plants valued at €680,000 were found growing on the premises.

A timber-framed extension was being added to the warehouse that would have doubled the floor size and enabled the simultaneous cultivation of just under 3,500 cannabis plants.

An examination of the warehouse and farm has revealed the Irish gang behind the operation was using techniques never seen in the Republic before.

Rows of high-wattage lights needed to generate sufficient light and heat to grow the cannabis crop had been attached to generators designed to kick in and ensure the crop continued to grow in the event of a power cut.

The warehouse walls and doors had been covered in a specialist spray-on insulation to maintain high levels of heat in the warehouse.

Filipino relatives of drug smugglers to China are implored by China's ambassador to Manila to understand why these so-called "scourge of society" must be executed by lethal injection and that while he commiserates with the families the verdicts will push through "sooner or later" in consonance with Chinese laws.

That they are a scourge of society was the phrase used by the Chinese embassy in Manila to announce the finality of the verdict.

Ambassador Liu Jintao also said that other than the deferment of the original dates of February 21 and 22 to still-unscheduled times, Sally Ordinario-Villanueva, 32, Ramon Credo, 42, and Elizabeth Batain, 38, can no longer opt for reprieve, clemency or commutation.

”I would like to confirm that the three criminals who have been sentenced to death are at the moment still alive. But the verdict is the final verdict. So the penalty will be carried out sooner or later and everything will be done in accordance with the law in China,” Liu told the press.

"The verdict of the Supreme People's Court (SPC) is final and executory," he told a press briefing on Thursday.

He posed a plea to Filipino families whose relatives engage in drug trafficking in China to understand that drug traffickers destroy Filipinos as well as the Chinese people. He asked for respect of Chinese laws against heroin smuggling, wherein at least 50 grams could lead to 15 years to life in prison or death.

”These drug traffickers are not only victimizing the Chinese people, they are also victimizing the Filipino people," he stressed.

The SPC of China had upheld lower courts' sentence for the three, who separately smuggled a total 15,323 grams or more than four kilograms each of heroin into Xiamen and Shenzhen in southern China in 2008.

In the case of the three, the amount they carried was "way beyond, way beyond," thus the severity of the verdict, said Liu.

Pointing out that the situation in Filipino drug-smuggling on the China route is "really, really bad," Liu emphasized on Thursday:"I don’t want to link this (execution) case with the general relations between China and the Philippines because I don’t want to see our wonderful relationship being kidnapped by these drug criminals."

He emphasized that trade and investment relations between the two countries have surged ahead, and any differences are outweighed by cooperation and dialogues.

Liu also said that “sooner or later” the executions would push through and nothing more would prevent them -- "the issue is not on China's agenda on the visit," Liu added.

He believes the highest officials of “the Philippine Government already "have a very, very good and clear understanding of Chinese laws,” as a February 18 Joint Statement between Vice President Jejomar C. Binay and top Chinese officials show.

Binay had gone off to China on a last-ditch appeal for clemency and was informed of the postponement "that considered the sentiments of the Philippine side yet within the purview of Chinese laws."

He did not elaborate, but noted that Manila is now “waiting for what Beijing will do next (the undated execution). I’m sure they (officials) understand this.” When the time comes, the Philippine embassy in Beijing will be informed, he said.

This would be the first execution of Filipinos in China. Nationals of the United Kingdom, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Pakistan, Mongolia and Afghanistan have been executed under China’s stiff anti-drugs-smuggling laws.

The British Medical Association, Alcohol Concern and other medical groups have announced that they will not sign up to the Public Health Responsibility Deal.

This is a partnership between the Department of Health, UK industry and the health community covering food, alcohol, physical activity and health at work.

The six organisations give a series of reasons why – as a group – they are unable to sign up to the deal's alcohol policy.

They believe the Responsibility Deal policy objective to foster a culture of responsible drinking does not adequately address the problems of morbidity and mortality caused by alcohol.

They also say drinks industry pledges are not reliable, and the Responsibility Deal process has not taken the health lobby’s alternative pledges into account.

These pledges include not to advertise in cinemas during under-18 films, and to put health warnings on all bottles.

While the organisations stress they ‘remain completely open to dialogue with the government’, they also say they ‘have not yet seen evidence that Government is working towards a comprehensive, cross-departmental strategy to reduce alcohol harm, based on evidence of what works, with rigorous evaluation metrics.’

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association says it will not comment before the publication of the government’s Public Health Responsibility Deal tomorrow.

The six organisations involved in today’s announcement are: Alcohol Concern, British Association for the Study of the Liver, British Liver Trust, British Medical Association, Institute of Alcohol Studies, and the Royal College of Physicians.

BMA spokeswoman Dr Vivienne Nathanson said, “The BMA has thought long and hard about walking away from the table but ultimately we do not feel we have any option. The government has talked the talk in respect of wanting to tackle alcohol misuse but when it comes to taking tough action that will achieve results it falls short. Instead it has chosen to rely on the alcohol industry to develop policies - given the inherent conflict of interest these will do nothing to reduce the harm caused by alcohol misuse.'

A three-year-old child who was treated in hospital for addiction to alcohol is thought to be Britain's youngest ever alcoholic, health officials said Monday.
The youngster was one of 13 people under the age of 12 who were diagnosed as alcoholics by the state-run National Health Service (NHS) in central England between 2008 and 2010.
Health officials declined to give details of the three-year-old's condition or disclose the toddler's identity due to patient confidentiality rules.
An NHS spokeswoman said: "We treat alcohol abuse very seriously, and have specialist teams and experts on hand who are there to treat young patients with alcohol-related problems."
The news, revealed by the NHS after a request under Freedom of Information laws, highlights Britain's uphill struggle to curb its heavy-drinking culture.
It came on the same day that leading health groups blasted a government initiative on alcohol which involves asking drinks firms to sign up to pledges to cut binge and underage drinking.
The groups, including the British Medical Association and the charity Alcohol Concern, accused the health ministry of letting the drinks industry dictate policy and condemned the pledges as neither specific nor measurable.